Early Life
He was son of Robert Poynings, and his wife, Elizabeth, only daughter of William Paston (1378–1444). He was born probably at his father's house in Southwark, which afterwards was the Crosskeys tavern, and then the Queen's Head. His father had been carver and sword-bearer to Jack Cade, and was killed at the Second Battle of St Albans on 17 February 1461; his mother, who was born on 1 July 1429, and married Poynings in December 1459, inherited her husband's property in Kent, in spite of opposition from her brother-in-law, Edward Poynings, master of Arundel College; before 1472 she married a second husband, Sir George Browne of Betchworth, Surrey, by whom she had a son Matthew and a daughter. She died in 1487, appointing Edward her executor. Some of her correspondence is included in the Paston Letters.
Poynings was brought up by his mother; in October 1483 he was a leader of the rising in Kent planned to second Buckingham's insurrection against Richard III. He was named in the king's proclamation, but escaped abroad to follow Henry, Earl of Richmond. He was in Brittany in October 1484 and in August 1485 he landed with Henry at Milford Haven. He was at once made a knight banneret, and in the same year he was sworn into the privy council.
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